Fig 4.

The bacteriophage cocktail reduces 55989Str concentrations in the mouse ileum. Ileal concentrations of bacteria (A) and bacteriophages (B) were determined on days 4 and 7 for three groups of mice colonized with E. coli 55989Str on day 0 and receiving, on day 3, bacteriophage-free drinking water (white circles) or drinking water containing a cocktail of bacteriophages at 3 × 10⁸ PFU/ml (gray circles) or 3 × 10¹⁰ PFU/ml (black circles) for 24 h only. Experiments were performed in triplicate (n = 15 to 29 per condition). Two asterisks indicate P values of <0.01, and three asterisks indicate P values of <0.001. (C) Ileal concentrations of E. coli 55989Str were determined by qPCR. The ratios of CFU equivalents of E. coli normalized with respect to the total numbers of bacteria are shown. Experiments were performed in duplicate (n = 6 to 8 per condition).